Showing results by narrator "Hannah Curtis" in All Categories

At the end of the ninth century, a large part of what is now England was controlled by the Vikings. In the early 900s, Edward led a great fight against the Viking armies, assisted by the English rulers of Mercia: Lord Æthelred and his wife Æthelflæd, who was also Edward's sister. Known to history as the Lady of the Mercians, she earned a reputation as a capable general who was feared by her enemies. In this authoritative biography, Tim Clarkson tells her remarkable life story from childhood to her vital role in saving England from the Vikings.

Enlisted for a mission to retrieve the memory of a military satellite that’s been mistaken for an angel by in-bred locals, Ryan Cawdor and his companions head deep into the wild country of Kill Island, only to discover they are being pursued by an old foe harboring a deadly grudge. With enemies on all sides, Ryan and his allies rapidly run out of places to turn...and no way back. Meanwhile, Doc Tanner is offered a tantalizing possibility that could end his time with the companions forever.

Esther Holley, the eldest in the family, has always had her life firmly in control until a miscarriage knocks her off course. Two months later, still emotionally spinning, she separates from her husband, Will, a sheep farmer and man of few words and moves back in with her parents. Life as a singleton 30-something living in her parents’ house is miserable, but Esther is determined to reboot her life, including going on a few unfortunate dates. She’s shocked when tight-lipped Will shows up on her doorstep determined to woo her back.

German power is rising again, threatening a war that will be even worse than the last one. The English aristocracy turns to an age-old institution to stave off war and strengthen political bonds—marriage. Debutantes flock to Germany, including Viviane Alden. On holiday with her sister during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Viviane’s true purpose is more clandestine.

Jennifer Cole has just been told that she has a terminal blood disorder and has just three months to live - 90 days to say goodbye to friends and family, and to put her affairs in order. Ninety days to come to terms with a diagnosis that is unfair, unexpected, and completely unpronounceable. Focusing on the positives (she won't have to go on in a world without Bowie or Maya Angelou; she won't get Alzheimer's or Parkinson's like her parents, or have teeth that flop out at the mere mention of the word apple), Jennifer realizes she only has one real regret.

When folk musician Janey Little finds a mysterious manuscript in an old trunk in her grandfather’s cottage, she is swept into a dangerous realm both strange and familiar. But true magic lurks within the pages of The Little Country, drawing genuine danger from across the oceans into Janey’s life, impelling her - armed only with her music - toward a terrifying confrontation.

Michael continues to work to fulfill the promise to his love, but the world isn't the same place. Now, there is a mistake he made centuries in the past walking around he needs to rectify. To complicate matters, there is a group out of England believing Michael’s blood will be just what they need for their business. While they get nasty Vampires off the street at the same time. Further, the effort to pull together the Sacred Clan’s ship parts are starting to come together. Unfortunately, no one wishes to give Michael and his new family any help.

London, 1952: Forty-six-year-old Elizabeth Dalloway feels she has failed at most everything in life, especially living up to her mother, the elegant Mrs. Dalloway, an ideal socialite and model of perfection until she disappeared in the summer of 1923—and hasn’t been heard from since. When Elizabeth is handed a medal with a mysterious inscription from her mother to a soldier named Septimus Warren Smith, she’s certain it contains a clue from the past.

Michael just wants a little sleep. The last few days has been a bit of a learning overload after coming back a hundred and fifty years after he was blown apart by a backpack nuke. The world destroyed itself, there are anti-gravity cars and ships, and his love is in the stars... somewhere. Plus, there is a Vampire trying to make Europe his personal fiefdom. Akio and Yuko are trying to find him, and he has a young female Wechselbalg and male Vampire to keep on the straight and narrow.

As the youngest Holley sister, Miriam has always been a bit of a rebel. After spending several years backpacking through Europe and Australia, she’s now back home...unemployed and pregnant, with no boyfriend or husband in sight. At first, Miriam only wants to hide away from the shocked and prying eyes of her father’s parishioners, but her sisters won’t let her. Determined to help her find her way, they urge Miriam to accept a job working as an assistant to Simon, the new vicar...and to think about what will happen when the baby comes.

Michel Faber’s tale of love and lust in the Victorian-era The Crimson Petal and the White was hailed as “a Dickensian novel for our times.” Now a major BBC TV drama, the saga of a prostitute named Sugar and the man who longs to possess her captured hearts and left fans desperate for more (The Guardian, UK). In The Apple, Faber returns to Silver Street to find it still teeming with life, and conjures further tantalizing glimpses of Sugar, Clara, William, Mr. Bodley, and many other favorites.

Rose has just turned 40 when she gets a call from a lawyer asking her to come to Kyoto for the reading of her estranged father’s will. And so, for the first time in her life, she finds herself in Japan, where Paul, her father’s assistant, is waiting to greet her.As Paul guides Rose along a mysterious itinerary designed by her deceased father, her bitterness and anger are soothed by the stones and the trees in the Zen gardens they move through.

Madly in love, Diana Foyle and Brent Somerville married in London as the bombs of World War II dropped on their beloved city. Without time for a honeymoon, the couple spent the next four years apart. Diana, an architectural historian, took a top-secret intelligence post at Bletchley Park. Brent, a professor of theology at King's College, believed his wife was working for the Foreign Office as a translator when he was injured in an attack on the European front.

After a break-in at their London home, Kat Wolfe and her veterinarian mum decide it’s time to move to the country. Dr. Wolfe’s new job on England’s Jurassic Coast comes with a condition: they have to adopt Tiny, a huge Savannah who resists Kat’s best attempts at cat whispering. Kat starts a pet-sitting agency to make pocket money, but then the owner of her first client, an Amazon parrot, vanishes from his gadget-filled mansion. 

Thirty-three years ago two little girls disappeared from a notorious run-down neighborhood in south London. One was found dead within a few days; the body of the other was never discovered. Today, the man convicted of murder three decades ago is back on the streets, and another girl vanishes. Hard-nosed investigative journalist Angela Tate reported on the old case and is back to cover the new story, determined to persuade the mother of the missing girl, Trisha Collins, to reveal a secret she’s been keeping about the original killing. But Trisha is terrified and refuses to talk.

When Thalia, Kalliope, and Charis set off to Regency London for their first Season, they each have clear goals―few of which include matrimony. Thalia means to make her mark among the intelligentsia and publish her poetry, Charis hopes to earn her place among the scientific elite, and Kalliope aims to take the fashionable ton by storm. But this Season, it doesn’t take long for things to fall apart. Can this roller-coaster Season find its happily ever after?

What makes a devoted employee and mother of three risk everything in the pursuit of truth? Caroline Barber is a civil servant, doing her best to hang on to her job while keeping her demanding family happy. Her world is shattered when she discovers her boss—a senior politician—dead at his desk. Unable to accept the official suicide verdict, Caroline sets out to uncover the real reason the minister had to die and discovers a web of secrets and lies spun by some very powerful men.

1792. As a child, Mary Wollstonecraft longed to disappear during her father’s violent rages. Instead, she transforms herself into the radical author of the landmark volume A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she dares to propose that women are equal to men. From conservative England to the blood-drenched streets of revolutionary France, Mary refuses to bow to society’s conventions and instead supports herself with her pen until an illicit love affair challenges her every belief about romance and marriage.

My people use the power of the earth to sustain life and defy our enemies. I am the half-breed bastard child of a king. I was not meant to survive the trials cast my way. Yet, here I stand. The world has deteriorated in the years I was banished. The Elemental families are rife with deception, violence, and madness more than ever before.

The two oldest Dashwood sisters approach romance differently. One impulsively jumps into love while the other is far more prudent. When tragedy strikes they find themselves searching for suitable husbands. Elinor feels ill-equipped to compete with the self-centred, fortune-driven society she finds herself in, whilst Marianne's unshakeable belief in her own feelings makes her susceptible to the designs of unscrupulous men. Can they find true love?